Title: THE LOSS OF THE BATTLE OF MANZIKERT: A HISTORICAL LESSON TO TODAY’S STATES
I. Introduction
The Battle of Manzikert happened between the Seljuk’s and the Byzantine Empire in 1071. Romanus Diogenes was versus Alp Arslan. It was a tragic defeat for the Byzantine Empire. It was not only a simple defeat but also a chaos and a dramatic event because Diogenes was captured, and then released by the Turks. This was accepted as dishonorable and a bad reputation in the Byzantine society.
II. Body
A. The Byzantine Empire’s situation before the Battle of Manzikert
• The political and military situation in the Empire
• The change of the reign in the Empire before this battle
B. Reasons for the loss of this battle
• Long lasting Bulgarian wars weakened the army: As stated by Browning, after Bulgaria was found, the Byzantine and Bulgaria had several long lasting wars, such as a war between them from 756-775, Nicephorus I was defeated, and slaughtered by Bulgarians in 811, another war between them from 912-922. The wars and conflicts between the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria kept going till the collapse of State of Bulgaria. Those kinds of wars worn out the Byzantine Empire because many men died, and got tired of those wars and conflicts, so the wars between them influenced negatively on the Byzantine Empire during the battle of Manzikert.
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• Desires and passion to expand its borders to the East,
• Poor military strategy and bad combat tactics
• Long lasting and frequent civil wars that hurt the empire’s economic and social life,
• Aggressive foreign policy and thinking about war without attempting any